Let's Not Go Down the Rabbit Hole
by Justa Little Puppy
Summary: Magic/Mythical-ishAU!Somethings been bugging Ace for years, and it's become too much in the past week. He denies and tries to take care of it himself, but his brothers refuse to let him go alone. So Ace has to take his idiot lil rubber bro Luffy and magicless bro Sabo along to kill the unknown king of Goa. Yay. But it wasnt that simple. Cuz Ace didn't know there were Rabbit Holes.


**Puppy's Post It: I did this chapter in two days. That's like, a record for meh :O Arf arf, on to more pressing matters! This was a bit of a random idea that popped into my head and sounded ok while I was making it, but now that it's done I don't know how people will react to this. I mean, One Piece already has a lot of fantasy and crud in it, so I don't know how peeps will feel if it's out right connected to magic and things, arf u-u So please review and tell me what you think of this! Is it worth the read? What did you like/dislike? Do you like pie? I NEED TO KNOW XO Arf, I'm pretty unsure about this if you haven't noticed -~- I had fun writing it, but when I finished I was like "But what if no one likes the idea of ASL wizards...? QAQ" Please lemme know what you think! A couple side notes: I hope you're not expecting things like 'hocas pocas abrakaboo, make this guy a kangaroo' or whatever. I can't bring myself to have people actually saying that... just can't ._. Also, the magic/mythical-ish changes are gonna be subtle for a while, particularly in this chapter since it's just the first. I mean there will be obvious things to note here, but I won't chuck super magic in your face ;3 Another thing, devil's fruits are called devil's magic in this story. Why? cuz ima goober like that. Mer. Arf arf, and finally, let's pretend, for this chapter, that Goa kingdom looks more or less the same. Just for this chapter X3 arf arf, sorry about this uber long author's note. ^^" Please enjoy and remember to review! You get doggy biscuits if you do! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece ;_; I do own a big imagination though, and therefore own this plot! Yay! I own something! :,D**

* * *

Sabo could tell today was going to be a bad one.

"Gomu Gomu no... Pistol!"

It'd been going more or less well so far. Why he thought such a thing now, he didn't know.

"Too slow, Luffy!"

Maybe it was the fact his pyro brother had been acting a bit strange lately?

"Gah! Ow ow, hot! Lemme go!"

Or possibly it was their lack of familiars that was bothering him again.

"You won't get stronger that way, Baka!"

Or maybe it was just that lingering sense of foreboding after Luffy got that letter... And now there was a fist coming at him. Yeah, this day was probably gonna be a bad one.

Sabo blinked, ducking at the last second as the rubber fist whizzed through the place his head had been and smacked into a ginormous tree behind him, snapping it in half. Making sure to wait until the fist retracted, he lifted his head slowly and glanced over his shoulder with a whistle.

"Wow, Luffy, and with just one punch. You are getting stronger." He praised as the tree toppled backward. The blonde then turned his head back around to semi-glare at the two. "A heads up would've been nice though, guys."

"Shishishi, see Ace! Sabo said I am getting stronger!" The 17 year old laughed, ignoring that part about a heads up. Ace sighed and folded his arms, ignoring it too.

"He's just being nice. Anyone can do that." He gestured to the toppled tree disinterestedly.

Luffy pouted, opening his mouth to protest when Sabo's laughter interrupted him. "C'mon, Ace. Give him some credit. Other than his rubber magic-" Sabo stood up from the rock he had been watching his brothers from, brushing off any dirt that might've flown onto his dark blue calf pants during the spar. "He'd split that tree with brute strength. Not everyone can do that."

Ace just snorted and turned back to his grinning younger brother. "Whatever. Lets just finish this session then go inside to eat."

"Yeah! Meat!" Luffy exclaimed whilst bouncing up and down. Ace took advantage of his brother's distracted joy and rushed forward, hopping up a couple feet in front of him and giving Luffy a good kick to the head. The sheer force sent the rubber boy's dome into the leaf-littered forest ground, leaving him to flail and promptly fall on his back after a couple seconds.

"We're done here. C'mon, Im hungry." Ace said, turning around and beginning to trek through the lush forest growth with a grin. Sabo snickered, trotting up to his struggling younger brother and pulling his head out the ground by the edge of his red shirt.

"You heard him, Luffy. Lets go before Ace eats everything." Luffy pouted, spitting out dirt and looking about to protest when the realization of what Sabo just said sunk in.

"O-Oi! Ace! Wait up!" He wailed, scrambling to his feet and sprinting after him. It's not like Ace hasn't done stuff like that before. Without any competition, the pyro could annihilate a good 20 pounds of venison in about 30 seconds. Ace actually stopped and turned his head to wait for his little brother with a look of indifference, but Sabo could see longing fondness in his eyes. He would keep that in his memory, another sign of Ace's strange behavior. Ace blinked back at him as if waiting, crossing his arms, and when Sabo waved him off in a gesture implying he'd catch up, he didn't miss Ace's disappointed sigh.

Chuckling, the blonde walked far more calmly after them. He was hungry, sure, but not in as much of a hurry as them. Today still bothered him, still seemed bad. The letter Luffy'd ran in with that morning... It was definitely the reason, it had to be.

* * *

_"Ace! Sabo! Lookie!" Luffy called, running in with an enchanted envelope following in the air beside him._

_His brothers looked up from their previous doings, which predictably had been eating. Sabo was the first to voice his curiosity. "You got a letter, Luffy?" He asked around a mouthful of bread._

_The raven haired teen nodded, snatching it out of the air, and no one but Luffy missed the thing's struggle to get out of his grasp and sweatdropped. Luffy must've given it a rough time before. Before he bothered to answer still, Luffy flew over to his brothers' sides and snatched up a large chunk of meat from his blonde brother. "Yeah, and guess who it's from!" He wasn't about to wait for an answer. "The king!"_

_Even Ace had to stop eating and give his brother his full attention at that. He was one of the last people they'd expect to get a royal message. Now taking more note of the envelope, they could see the purple and gold seal of the royal family holding the crisp white paper closed. The symbol on it was that of a gold falcon, flying through the air with a gold rod spilt in two in its talons. "You, got a message from them? Are you sure it's even for you, not a mix up?" Ace asked carefully, sounding a bit dark. Sabo blinked at his tone, but Luffy either didn't notice or chose to ignore it._

_"I'm positive! See, it has my name." Luffy turned the squirming paper over to show them his name on it, written in the brightest of gold ink._

_Ace squinted to make sure it was authentic, then frowned deeply. Sabo frowned a bit at the envelope, too. Luffy really was the last person he'd expect to get one of these things._

_"Well? Open it." Ace asked, giving him his full attention and sounding rather serious. Sabo nodded his agreement, and Luffy, having obviously been restraining from tearing the thing apart until he'd shoved his brothers' noses in it, violently tore open the envelope._

_The spell cast on the poor piece of paper died and ended the frightened thing's short life, paper giving way to a golden piece of parchment with glaring black letters._

_Luffy cleared his throat and began to read aloud, wanting to further inform his older brothers excitedly. "Monkey D. Luffy, you are courtly invited to attend a banquet- EHH?! A BANQUET?!" Luffy started to drool._

_Sabo sighed. "Calm down. Lets hear the rest of that letter before you obsess about what you're gonna eat." Luffy turned to blink at him, before he just grinned and went on._

_"-In the kings hall on the... moe-row... Whats moe-row?"_

_"Let me see that." Ace grumbled, snatching it out of his brother's hand and ignoring his protests. "It says morrow, idiot."_

_"Oh. What's morrow?"_

_"Alright, I'm reading." Ace declared, not waiting to give Luffy a chance to complain much as he started. "In the king's hall on the morrow. The king wishes to ask business of you in his castle. You are a specially invited guest, grandson of the great hero Garp, and we wish for you to come and..." Ace's face darkened. "Temporarily occupy his spot on the royal council, while he is gone on a quest. The responsibility that will be asked of you during the dinner will be one of great proportions-"_

_"The dinner will be one of great portions? I can hardly wait~!"_

_Of course that was what Luffy heard. Sabo and Ace (despite himself) started laughing, while Luffy just blinked at them and began laughing himself. "Shishi, why are we laughing?" He giggled._

_"Nothing, nothing." Sabo managed when he calmed down some. After Ace had regained his breath, he started reading again with a lighter face. "-And we expect you to take great thought upon it. Come noon tomorrow, there will be an escort sent to bring you to the palace. Belongings will be unnecessary, and we urge you to wear appropriate attire for a kingly meeting."_

_There was a short, thick silence. Luffy tilted his head at it. "You guys can come with me, right?" He asked, voicing what at least Sabo was thinking. Both his brothers looked at him. Even Luffy noticed what the letter was more or less implying. When the king 'asked' of something, it was meant to be done. It had always been that way, but they were known for going against the norm. Though Luffy only intended to go for the food, when he did 'respectfully decline' he wanted his brothers to be there to back him up._

_"Course, Luffy, and we will. Doesn't look like you're going to get much a choice in the matter, so we gotta help you make one." Sabo grinned, then looked to Ace, who was just sitting there staring at them._

_"...Ace?" Luffy said inquiringly._

_"Yeah. I'm going."_

* * *

Sabo frowned at the memory, stopping in front of the door to the house.

It was an obvious lie. Luffy didn't seem to notice, but Sabo had been growing more and more suspicious of his brother, starting from how last week he'd started to distance himself. He'd avoid hunting with them at times, spar far less, space out; then he'd pratically throw himself at them, fighting way more than they'd normally do and taking down veritable feasts together. Sabo was actually a bit worried. What was it that was making his brother act this way?

"ACE! GIVE IT BACK!"

"IT'S MINE! STOP TAKING THINGS FROM MY PLATE!"

Sabo blinked. He must have spaced out himself, because it sounded like the evening meal was already in full swing and as lively as ever. With a grin he pushed open the door and stepped in.

"AH! WHY DO YOU KEEP TRYING TO EAT ME!?"

Sabo looked up, and not at all to his surprise he saw Luffy attempting to eat Dadan. Again. The unfortunate mountain troll was apparently tasty, despite her less then... Delectable looks.

Luffy didn't respond, just munched faster as he tried to swallow the frantically running troll lady into his mouth. Dagra was chasing after them, attempting to save his leader. "Oi, Oi, Luffy! She isn't food!"

Sabo snorted. Watching Luffy do that always made him cheerful. Maybe his bad feeling about today was just random or something...

Then he glanced to Ace. He sat quietly, eating his food at a moderate pace and face dark with thought, as dark as it'd been when he was reading that one part in the letter. That wasn't at all normal. Just a second ago, he'd been wrestling with Luffy for his share.

Sabo stepped around and over the mountain trolls he'd known for most of his life, trying not to kick any on the floor struggling to get some food down their throats before anyone stole it. Taking a seat beside Ace, he frowned at him and tilted his head.

"Ne, Ace?"

The pyro looked up, face questioning.

"What's wrong? You've been acting weird lately. And even weirder since this morning. Dont even deny it either. You've been chewing on that meat for more than 15 seconds. That's not normal." He and Ace had to duck as a chicken leg was hurled over their heads.

Ace looked him over, eyebrows furrowed in an expression of immediately exasperated annoyance. "You understand the concept of things that we have to do, right?"

Taken a bit off guard by the strange question, the blonde nodded slowly.

"Good. Lets leave it at that."

Sabo frowned. "What? That doesn't tell me-"

"Let's leave it at that, Sabo." Ace hissed, turning away and going back to his contemplative chewing. Sabo continued to glare next to him, like if he did it long enough his brother's obvious secret would be revealed. After a while of nothing happening, he sighed and folded his arms.

"Brothers shouldn't keep secrets from each other." Sabo looked down at the floor, contemplating that himself as he and Ace sat in relative silence while chaos was going on all around them. When he didn't receive an answer, he raised his head and narrowed his eyes at him.

"So what is it, Ace?"

Ace didn't look up.

"Some things are better left as secrets, you know."

Sabo frowned and put a hand on his hat. Maybe in his younger days he would've tried to force the answers to his questions out the man, but he himself knew this was true and wouldn't press. He was upset, though. Those kinds of secrets normally came back around to haunt you and come out in the end. He didn't want Ace to have to deal with that alone, whatever it was.

Late that night, Sabo lay in bed watching the wall clock. It was around 11:45 now. 15 more minutes, and he could finally safely call his feelings of this being a bad day irrational. Things hadnt been all bad, really. The only thing about today that was remotely unnerving was Ace's mood swings and weirdness, and that letter. Other than that, a pretty ok day. It was silly of him, even, to be counting down the seconds to his day officially being decent.

Suddenly he heard a rustling sound beside him. Like someone getting out of bed. On the side Ace was on.

_"Damnit."_

Staying still and silent, he listened to his brother move around quietly, doing things he couldn't see as he'd closed his eyes the moment he heard him. What was Ace up to?

He felt the 20 yr old trip over his leg, which he'd stuck haphazardly out when he'd first gotten into his futon. He almost snorted listening to his brother curse at him and his leg, but managed to keep himself together as Ace must have thought himself lucky not to land on top of Sabo and instead beside him, because all he did was stand up and poke him gently. When he got no reaction, Ace sighed and muttered "Must not have hit his leg that hard" under his breath. Then he went back to whatever it was he was doing.

Sabo dared to open one eye a bit, hoping to catch a glimpse of his brother's activities. He frowned a bit at what he saw. Ace was in the middle of trying to stuff a large book into a green bag with black stripes, at the same time jamming his foot into a boot. Whatever Ace was up to, he was in a hurry and obviously wasn't going to be waiting up.

Ace finally managed to stuff the book into the bag, getting his boots on too at the same time. After a considerable amount of time spent zipping it up, Ace slung the pack on his shoulder and stood. He glanced at a shirt on the dresser nearby, thinking.

"..."

He wouldn't necessarily need a shirt, would he? His shorts should be enough. Ace turned and began to head for the door, heart heavy. He had to be quick. He'd obviously waited too long, as the king was now trying to... Do something, to his brother. Whatever it was he did, he wouldn't let it happen. He should be able to reach the kingdom within a couple hours, and in the castle should be where the king resided. He'd end him, and then no one would have to worry. He'd protect his lit-

"Ace."

_"Damnit."_

Ace looked over his shoulder, standing right in front of the door and hand reaching out for the bedroom handle. Sabo was sitting up apparently wide awake, and glaring daggers at him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

He hated that phrase. Where do you think you're going. Like the person it was directed at assumed they were going somewhere, but it was quite the contrary. He knew for a fact however he was going to the castle of Goa, and no one would stop him.

"Out. I'll be back soon." He said simply, pushing the door open and trotting into the hallway. Ace heard footsteps behind him as he reached the front door, opening it slowly and walking out. Only when those footsteps began to walk out into the cool night air behind him did he stop and turn around.

"Stay here, Sabo." He commanded, eyes narrowed. A cold breeze moaned past them, fluttering Ace's hair about and into his face. It gave him a rather intimidating appearance, but Sabo wasn't one to be easily cowed. Especially by his own brother who without a doubt planned on doing something foolish.

"What are you doing, Ace? You should know neither I nor Luffy would just sit and twiddle our thumbs if you went missing. What do you want to do?"

Ace sighed, resigning himself. "Fine. I'm going to kill the king."

Sabo stared at him calmly, not showing any surprise. He'd always known Ace wasn't at all fond of their king, and would often speak of eliminating him. As far as everyone who'd heard stories of their ruler knew, the man was ruthless in his order and struck fear into anyone who'd come remotely in contact with him. The only reason a rebellion hadn't come up was because of what happened to the last rebellion not too long ago. Their heads were brought back to the village they came from and literally put on a silver platter in the square for all to see by some of the king's knights. No one who'd seen them dared to speak about the king for like, a year. Ace realized Sabo's silence was an invitation to continue, because he obviously had more to say.

"I can't deal with him anymore. The king... Hardly anyone even really knows who he is. And everyone who does, when people ask... They just, freeze up. Even Gramps gets all subdued when he visits and someone brings him up. That guy cant be any good if just his rank is enough to make him shut up. All I know is whoever he is, he's bad news and doing something badder. Something that's gonna ruin us completely. You know what I mean, right? The letter that he sent to every village, about the alliance with the self-proclaimed 'World Government'?"

Sabo nodded slowly, face still as calm as ever as he listened to his brother's rant.

"Those guys, they suck the life, the freedom out of every country they join with to make us all 'united'. I don't buy their game, Sabo. I won't let my country have to suffer the same fate. Im going to leave here and live freely, without the hinderance of some other country I visit's own corrupted power. It should be that way for everyone. The king's planning on ruining that so I have to take him down, now! And before he makes my brother a 'substitute for his council seat', especially."

Ace breathed in and out slowly through his mouth, then looked to Sabo, watching him carefully and waiting for what he would do next. The blonde sighed.

"Alright." he said slowly. Ace nodded, grateful for his brother's understanding, then turned to continue.

"Just let me get Luffy and we can go."

"Eh?!"

Ace spun around, eyes wide. His eyes got even wider when he saw Luffy was already in the doorway, poking his head out and grinning. "I'm already up, so lets go beat up the mystery king now!"

"That's the spirit, Luffy! But you might wanna dress first. If we show up there in our boxers, no one will take us seriously."

"Oi, you guys can't come with me! And how long have you been up Luffy?!"

"Since you started talking about killing the king. Why not?"

"Because this isn't just going on an 'adventure' or improving my skills. The king is a supposedly powerful wizard, and I don't want to take a chance with you guys getting in my way."

Sabo and Luffy looked at him incredulously. "'Getting in your way?'" They said simultaneously.

"Yes. Don't give me that look, Sabo. I highly doubt you can beat the king, who has devil's magic for your information, when you can hardly beat mine."

"Hardly?!"

"Just stay back. And Luffy, don't even say anything. You get in the way. All the time. Don't follow me, or I swear I'll melt you both to the ground. See ya." With that Ace whirled around and stomped away, thoroughly annoyed.

Sabo and Luffy glanced at each other, before Luffy looked back toward Ace. "Ace~! That's not fair! What's up with you lately?! Why are you being so mean and weird?! Let us go with you!" Ah. So Luffy had noticed.

"Shut the hell up and go back inside!"

Luffy frowned and looked about to shout something else and bolt after him when Sabo put a hand out, blocking his little brother. Said brother looked up at him questioningly, but Sabo just smirked. They waited until Ace was out of sight, which took a while because Ace kept stopping to look over his shoulder and glare at them so they wouldn't try to follow. When they finally couldn't see him anymore, Sabo snorted and grinned at his other brother, who just looked confused. "Sabo, we shoulda went after him. Why'd you stop me?" He muttered with a pout.

Sabo's grin just widened."Ace doesn't know that there is a short cut to the edge of the forest, does he?"

"No." He hadn't known that either...

"So I'm guessing he also doesn't know we can just follow him that way, right?"

Luffy grinned, starting to get what Sabo was hinting at. "Nope!"

"He also doesn't know that the castle he's heading for is one of branch buildings, huh?"

"Branch buildings...?"

"The king doesn't stay in one place for more than a day, its common knowledge, probably to avoid assassination, and moves around from castle to castle. I doubt he's in this one."

They were silent a moment. So Ace would've more or less left in vain, the king not being there to kill, and by the time he returned the order would still have been carried out and Luffy would've been taken, with or without Sabo.

"Ace is an idiot, isn't he." He didn't even bother to put it as a rhetorical question as he sighed at his brother's rashness. Ace probably hadn't thought this through at all.

"Yup!"

"...What time is it?"

Luffy blinked at the seemingly random question, then went inside. He came back a couple seconds later. "11:59."

"..."

* * *

**Puppy's Post It: Dadan and her family don't look much different from their original appearances despite being trolls, except for having small greenish ivory horns on their heads. Is that mean of me? Lol XP Time is a nugget like that XP So what do you think? Feedback would be really nice ya know, even though this is the first chapter and is probably a little confusing ^^" I'll do my best to really explain stuff that needs to be explained later though! Especially the title of this story; I'm realizing now it probably doesn't make sense right now u_u At least you guys have a basic idea of the situation :3 So review! You get biscuits if you do, arf arf! You know y'all want some doggy biscuits. You want it. You want it. YOU WANT IT. *^* Hope you liked~! XP**


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